Johnson Matthey is in a tough spot. The FTSE 100 chemicals group, one of Britain’s great engineers, has gone from leading the way with new technology to depending on fading ones. Investors aren’t impressed and short-sellers are circling.
The company had banked on making cathodes for electric car batteries. Lots of money was spent and investors got excited, only for it to turn round, years later, and reveal that competition from larger, lower-cost producers made returns from this business inadequate.
That embarrassing and extremely expensive retreat left Johnson Matthey without a cash cow successor to its catalytic converters. With a ban on internal combustion engines looming, these profitable devices, which turn pollutant gases emitted from vehicles into less harmful ones, presumably will not be needed
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